


Little Dragons

by Bjorntheblorg



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Aubrey is just trying to finish her coin collection, Beca may or may not be going insane, Dragons, Emily is a tiny little brown dragon that has a favorite coin, F/F, Quarters - Freeform, chloe is a vet, coins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-10-11 01:59:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17437733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bjorntheblorg/pseuds/Bjorntheblorg
Summary: Beca decided to be responsible and put all of her spare change into a coin tray. However, for some strange reason, her quarters keep disappearing.





	1. Boom

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by that one tumblr post about a tiny dragon who's horde is a single piece of gold. And my little side hobby of trying to get all of the 50 quarters to complete my United States collection. 
> 
> Also, for non-US readers. US quarters, a coin worth a quarter of a dollar, have designs on the back. Some of the designs are pictures from each of the 50 states, the newer coins have national parks or monuments. Older quarters have a picture of the US Eagle. Those are kinda cool, but also really boring.

Just because Beca was a multi-millionaire didn’t mean she didn’t know the value of money. Every day, like before she got discovered by her current record label, Beca dumped out all the change in her pocket onto a waiting coin tray. She didn’t need it, but she kept the change together and at the end of the week put it into an account she had for her spare change.

 

Sometimes she joked it was her cocaine fund, other times she said it was her fund for when she inevitably became a broke alcoholic. Really she didn’t know what she was going to use it for, but she knew it was going to be used for something good. Like maybe her daughter’s college funds.

 

Hopefully.

 

Anyway, the problem began when she suddenly found the amount going into the fund was smaller than normal, by around five to ten dollars. It wouldn’t have been much of a concern, except for the fact that Beca knew she wasn’t spending any more than normal. 

 

She would dump out her pocket, make herself dinner, then look back at the tray to see a few less quarters. It was driving her insane, she knew she had put more money there but she couldn’t be sure since she didn’t count them out.

 

It left her wondering if she was going crazy, like the fame was going straight to her head and she was in denial of being insane. At times she created plans to test if the quarters were actually missing, or if she was just losing it, but she always backed out of doing them because what if she really was a few screws loose and had to go get help?

 

Did she want bliss or reality?

 

Eventually, about three months into the quarter fiasco, she decided to do something simple, count how many quarters she put into the tray. Before getting home on Fridays she went to the bank, got a ten dollar roll of quarters, and put them in the tray before counting them out on Monday when she deposited them.

 

Shaking so bad that Beca almost dropped a few, she counted ten dollars exactly. Sighing, not really sure in frustration, relief, or joy, Beca scooped up the money and went to the bank. Since the ATM didn’t have a coin slot she had to give them to a teller. Josh, a young man in his twenties, was her usual teller. He was the only one with enough patience to count her change, everyone else quickly learned to be “busy” when they saw her come in.

 

One time Josh was counting and one of his co-workers rolled their eyes at him. Beca blushed, embarrassed, but Josh shook his head. 

 

“Don’t worry about Marcus, he’s just like that.” He said, rolling up a dollar in pennies. “I like rolling coins, it’s very relaxing.”

 

Today though, Josh frowned and looked at the quarters.

 

“Uhm, Beca? You’re short two quarters.”

 

Beca’s eyes widened. Oh goodness, she wasn’t going crazy, something was stealing her quarters!

 

“Uh, here.” She said, fishing out two quarters. “Must have miscounted.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The problem with trying to catch the thing stealing her quarters was if she put a camera it would be too obvious. 

 

Right after depositing the ten, plus another hundred in small bills, Beca went to an electronics store to buy herself home security cameras. Even the smallest one, about the size of a tennis ball, were too obvious. The thing would stop stealing from her, and Beca would go crazy from the suspense.

 

She groaned and texted Stacie. Stacie was an engineer, she could help her figure it out, right?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It turns out, talking to Stacie didn’t help. In fact, it made it worse. Beca groaned and ended the call, rolling over onto her stomach to yell into her pillow. 

 

Of course, you can’t solve a problem without all the facts, but there was only so much Beca could say without making herself sound like a nutcase. Besides, it was two quarters! She earned that much every blink!

 

How much did she really care about change?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Jesse.” Apparently, she cared a lot. “If you were a spy, how would you record someone without being noticed?”   
  


Normally she couldn’t care less about boring predictable movies, but sometimes they had interesting ideas, such as the one movie where the kid made a ton of traps to beat up two robbers. A few of them worked, she tried them on Jesse when he tried to make her watch movies.

 

“I would use a pen camera.” He said without missing a beat. “Wait, why?”

 

“Thank you, I’ll tell you later.” She said, hanging up the phone and whipping out Amazon.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The next day she dropped a few quarters into her tray, and the new pen she just got. Now, the hardest part was waiting.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

But, then she realized she hated it when people would try to surprise her while she tried to live. And the thing stealing her quarters would probably hate it too, so she changed her plans. The pen was forty dollars, but it was still nice and would be repurposed to capture pranks or something silly.

 

Instead Beca took out some new quarters she got back in change for her coffee that morning and a flashcard.

 

‘Hey, here are some quarters you can have, they’re new and clean. Can you do me a favor and help me find my spare keys?’

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The next morning the quarters were gone from the tray and in their place were three keys that went missing the last time she had a Bella reunion. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Beca screamed, flinging the couch cushions in the air.

 

No, she couldn’t have! No! She sobbed, curling in on herself, pressing her face against the bare couch. When it seemed like everything was finally going to get better she had to lose the stupid drive with her stupid mixes for her stupid…

 

The thought made her sobs louder, and she didn’t notice the soft clicking of nails on her polished wooden floors.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When Beca was finally able to breathe again without breaking into another round of hysterical sorrow, she blinked and took a deep breath. It was okay, she would be fine.

 

Tears began filling her eyes again.

 

‘No Beca, not now!’ She scolded herself. ‘Think about Chloe and your kid!’

 

Thinking about Bethany, her five year old, and Abby, her three year old, made her stop crying. She had to be strong for them, and besides she already knew how her songs were polished. She still had the rough tracks. She still had twelve hours until her next shift. She could do this!

 

Once her eyes cleared she looked down, and frowned. In front of her was a box of tissues and a cup of water with a note. 

 

She wiped her nose and took a sip of the cool water, it soothed her throat and helped her gather her thoughts. Once she was calm again, Beca looked down at the note and frowned. It was the same note she wrote to whatever was stealing from her. 

 

Picking it up, the flashcard was heavier than usual, which didn’t make sense since there was nothing new on the front. The front.

 

Beca turned the card around and screamed with joy. Her stupid blue flash drive was taped to the back. She never thought she would be happier to see a piece of metal and plastic.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When she got back the next day, after winning over James with her cleaned up song, she put twenty dollars worth of quarters into the coin tray placing a note.

 

‘Thank you! You can have all of these quarters!’

 

A few hours later most of the quarters were gone and the ones left were the plain quarters with the eagle with a new note written in cursive, similar to the notes she got from her grandmother whenever she sent a gift. 

 

‘Not a problem, it would be appreciated if you could use the remaining quarters to obtain a Sacagawea dollar coin.’

 

Without a thought Beca went out to the bank and dropped off the requested coin into the tray. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Beca cleaned up the entire house, sweeping, mopping, being utterly domestic because Chloe and her girls were visiting today. Chloe and her girls still lived a few hours away, they decided that Chloe would stay there until Beca finally found her footing.

 

(And, in reality, until Chloe found a job in the local veterinary hospitals.)

 

She also wanted to make sure the neighborhood was safe, it was, and selfishly she wanted at least a year without distractions so she could propel her career. Though now she ached for her daughters and wife. The past two years had been long and lonely, Beca swore she would never let this happen again. Even if she lost a promotion because she wasn’t working “hard enough” it didn’t matter. She had her family.

 

That morning, when Beca called Chloe to make sure the ginger didn’t have problems getting to the airport, she complained about Chloe’s decision to enroll the girls in public school.

 

“Chlo, what if they get bullied or hurt?” Beca asked, her own fears and insecurities creeping upon her. It had been years since she felt that way, but it was never far from her mind.

 

“You live in a good neighborhood Becs.” Chloe said. “At the first sign of trouble we’ll deal with it and if it gets too much then we can homeschool them.”

 

Beca agreed reluctantly, and Chloe softens her tone.

 

“Beca, kids these days are more tolerant. And if they aren’t, we’ll teach our girls all about love, so if they are bullied they know better than to listen.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

‘My wife and kids are visiting, just a heads up.’

 

‘Much appreciated, thank you.’

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was too soon, Beca thought, as she hugged her wife and daughters goodbye. They were going to move in once summer came around, but it was still six too many months away. She wanted them there and now.

 

Beca slumped into her couch and sighed, the two days after sending her family off without her were always the hardest. Already anticipating the slump she called in for the next two days, James was a pushy jerk but he was understanding too and always gave her the days off.

 

(It might have also been because the one time she did come in she threw hot coffee at him while sobbing hysterically.)

 

The scampering, and clicking nails on polished wood, near the coin tray was something she learned to ignore. Out of respect she didn’t seek out the thing, and the thing never came out while people were visiting.

 

Something dropped into the coin tray, it gave a loud thud but the sound was soft, muted by the material. Once the scampering went away Beca looked over and choked back a laugh. Sitting pretty on the tray was Sir Wellington, a stuffed toy pig that Abigail lost during her stay.

(Beca bought her a dog, Sir Fargo, that looked almost like the pig. Chloe laughed at the pun that flew over her daughters heads.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bliss ended when Beca heard a massive bang. It was during the blistering Los Angeles heat, Beca cranked up the A/C and closed all the blinds, relishing in the arctic cool space she created for herself. The thing felt the heat too, Beca left out a few bottles of ice cold water out in the morning and they were all gone by noon. 

 

She thought it was a generator that went out because of all the people who were using power. That wasn’t too unusual. It happened often enough that Beca learned to attribute loud noises to that instead of gunshots.

 

(Okay, that one was because she went hunting with her mom enough that the sound got ingrained in her head.)

 

So when her power didn’t cut out she got confused. She opened the curtain and hissed, the window was hot from absorbing the sun’s blistering heat and it felt even hotter against her vampire cold skin. Beca, ever the strong soldier, looked around, and saw nothing out the ordinary. 

 

Confused she closed the blinds and looked around, to see the face of a tiny brown dragon clutching a gold coin. 

 

It was small, the coin was about one fourth its size, and a brown like dark chocolate that got contaminated by milk chocolate. It was a nice color weirdly enough. The little dragon’s eyes were brown too, but a hazelnut brown.

 

(Okay, Beca was craving chocolate, but Chloe had her on a new diet. So she missed chocolate with every ounce of her being.)

 

The little brown dragon looked sort of like a little Smaug with tiny wings, only softer looking and cuter. It screeched, waving the arm not holding its coin up toward the second floor. Beca frowned but followed it as it zipped up the stairs, both arms gripping its coin tightly ears flush with its skull.

 

Upstairs her massive bookshelf had collapsed, which was kind of a bitch since it also took out her desk. Underneath, which took Beca’s breath away, lay an unmoving ball of blonde hair. 

 

It was another dragon, Beca’s brain barely processed the fact as she frantically pushed up against the wooden panel. The little brown dragon placed its coin on the floor and pulled the bigger dragon out of the rubble. 

 

‘I don’t think it was born with a dent like that.’ Beca thought, noticing the blatant … cave where the ribs should be.

 

Or, where she assumed they would be.

 

This dragon was long and skinny, like Mushu but wider. It had a golden mane, vibrant red scales and little stubs of horns jutting out of its skull. The brown dragon whined and flapped its wings frantically while nudging the other dragon’s muzzle. Beca looked closer and saw the bigger dragon had some cuts on its face, looking around she saw some wooden shareds coated in golden fluid. 

 

“Emily, I love you but shut up. I’m not dead.” The bigger dragon groaned, the first sign of life. “And pick… up your coin.”

 

Emily quickly backed away, making apologizing whines while grabbing her forgotten coin. 

 

“I’m going to pick you up.” Beca said, looking around for a basket of sorts. She had thick fluffy towels down the hall. “And then we’re going to the vet.”

 

“No.” The bigger dragon moaned, trying to lift its head. It couldn’t and huffed in frustration. 

 

Emily snorted little smoke clouds at the red dragon before nodding her tiny scaly head at Beca. 

 

“I’m about to grab you.”

 

“Fine.”

 

There was only one person she trusted, and she felt sorry for the dragon. It was going to be a long bumpy ride. 

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


	2. Gift Giving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference, Emily looks like Toothless, only a lot smaller, browner, and with a bit more square muzzle.   
> And you can buy coin books, which have slots so you can organize your coin collections, which is kinda weird if you think about it. Why are you paying money to organize your money?

Chloe blinked. There was so much going on wrong in this scenario it reminded her of her life in college. Currently Beca was wrestling a three foot long red dragon that apparently was “refusing treatment”, and a tiny little brown hummingbird of a dragon was floating around them.

 

“Doctor!” The red dragon shrieked. “Tell this meddler that I am fine!”

 

It was the first time in her life that she had seen Beca willingly get dirty. There was golden blood all over her wife, like she took a mud bath in it or something.

 

“Emily tell her she should get checked!” Beca snapped at the small dragon.

 

It clutched its coin tighter, and nodded, squeaking at the bigger lizard. It shrieked back, and they chatted for a few minutes before Emily huffed smoke and flew over to Chloe.

 

Emily’s eyes were massive saucers as she puffed up her chest. If it weren’t for the fact she was at work, Chloe would have totally hugged the little thing. And probably never let it go.

 

Emily looked away as she offered her gold coin to Chloe, tears building up in the corner of her little scaly eyes as she dropped the money into Chloe’s open palm. The bigger dragon sighed and finally gave up, letting Beca put her on the table.

 

The little brown dragon tried hard to not cry, but Chloe could see the tears building up in its eyes.

 

“Here Emily.” Chloe cooed. “Don’t worry, Beca’s paying for it.”

 

Her wife’s head popped up, alongside the bigger dragon, and they both looked at Chloe as if she grew another head. Before Beca could protest Chloe shot her a ‘Don’t you dare try me I will make you a Mitchell.’ look.

 

Beca groaned but rifled through her pockets for quarters.

~

 

Emily, and reluctantly the red dragon, became permanent fixtures in Beca’s life. It turned out Emily liked cooking, which explained why sometimes Beca found food stains she swore she didn’t leave.

 

Soon in the mornings she was greeted with silver dollar sized pancakes, a few strips of bacon, and a small dish of fluffy eggs. Emily always took care to arrange them in happy faces, sometimes the eggs were the eyes and the pancakes made a smile. Other times the bacon smiled and the pancakes had busy eggy eyebrows.

 

Emily was always there to greet her after the long day, sorting through Beca’s change to give in offering to the bigger dragon, who tidied up the place. 

 

“How much do you have?” Beca asked when she came home one day and cleaning appliances she swore she never bought leaned against her immaculate couch.

 

Emily was wrapped up in a fluffy bath towel, looking more like a fluffy burrito than a dragon.

 

The dragon turned around, and Beca bit back a laugh. Wrapped around its waist was a small apron with pockets for cleaning supplies. Around its mane was a hairnet.

 

She fought the urge to whip out her phone and snap a picture. It was too damn cute. And her phone was full of pictures of Emily, once Chloe got over her shock she demanded to see pictures of Beca’s dragons.

 

(The Dragon, OG Dragon, angry red lizard noodle, angrily pointed out they were not “Beca’s dragons” and demoting them to objects was insulting. Emily huffed at her sour compatriot and happily posed for the camera.)

 

The dragon frowned, and Beca wanted to straighten up and say “No ma’am, I wasn’t laughing.”. But, she had self respect and didn’t, instead she took a pic of Emily and sent that to Chloe.

 

“You realize Chloe bought all of this stuff right?” The dragon huffed, dusting a family picture they took last summer. 

 

No she did not.

 

~

She accidentally found out where they slept because she finally decided to cook. Chloe was headed over for the weekend, and it turned out dragons had lessons. Wise Scaly one took Emily upstairs to the bathroom so they could practice fire breathing.

 

As she strained for the stock pot, and who was she kidding with the stock pot, she felt her fingers brush on something incredibly soft.

 

When she finally accepted reality and got herself a chair to stand on, she saw one of her old beaten up pillows. Surrounded by it were piles of quarters, in neat stacks. And there were hundreds of quarters everywhere. If Beca had to guess it was probably a hundred or so dollars worth of quarters up here.

 

Off to the left side was a smallish nest that she guessed Emily slept in. Right next to it were three gold coins scattered about. 

 

It gave her an idea.

 

~

 

She forgot all about dinner because of the wonders of the internet. Specifically Amazon, Amazon was amazing. Especially Prime, there were so many things she didn’t know she needed in two days! 

 

“Babe, not that I don’t mind take out, but I thought you were going to cook?” Chloe asked the moment she walked through the door with pizza.

 

(Beca’s two favorite things if she were the be honest. Right next to the kids if Chloe asked.)

 

“Shh, look!” She said, pointing to her phone screen. “Do you think Emily would like this?”   
  


She had been searching tent beds since Emily loved to be covered, and a dog bed for the bigger dragon. In her wishlist she put a few coin books for the bigger dragon, and a few more gold coins for Emily.

 

The final three tent beds for Emily were a shark head, a literal tent, or a circular hole with a bed inside. Chloe looked and frowned, before picking the shark bed.

 

“Alright. Ready for dinner?” Beca grinned.

 

~

 

Emily loved it. She shrieked and happily dove into the plush jaws of the shark. The bigger dragon rolled its eyes, but accepted the dog bed, with one stipulation. Emily’s bed was to always be next to her. It took a bit of work, but they managed to get the beds to fit inside the cupboard.

 

“I appreciate your thought.” The red dragon said with a tone that said she didn’t at all. “But, what would your guests say?”

 

Right, dragons technically don’t exist.

 

Beca shrugged. After all, it took them a year or so to get caught. 

 

~

 

Actually Beca didn’t realize how much the red dragon, Red Snake with Legs, contributed to her sense of wellbeing until one day the red dragon fell ill once again. It was because of an infection in the cuts she refused to have treated, so Chloe kept her up north.

 

Emily tried her hardest to sweep and clean, but because she was so small the little brown dragon would pass out mid chore from the effort. It terrified Beca when she caught Emily sleeping in the middle of a burnt pancake, and she tried to help out with the chores.

 

(Which was impossible. Honestly how in the blazes did the Overgrown Snake with Legs do it?)

 

Chloe was three days away from releasing the red dragon back into Beca’s neglectful hands. It was just enough time to buy things from Amazon.

 

“Emily!” Beca yelled loudly for the little dragon.

 

Emily loved sneaking into small spaces looking for gold coins. When Beca found out, she made it a habit of collecting gold coins and hiding them places just for Emily to find. Everyday at night, when Emily was sleeping, Beca threw a coin somewhere.

 

A small brown head popped out of the couch. She gave a small whine to let Beca know she was there.

 

“Emily, which one should I get?” Beca asked, pointing the screen to Emily.

 

The brown dragon cocked her head, humming before popping out her small claw and pointing to the left one.

 

Beca nodded. “Good choice.”

 

~

 

The look on the red dragon’s face was priceless. Emily swelled with pride, her tiny chest puffing out with glee as she took in her caretaker’s absolute joy.

 

It had taken them the entire day to put it together, Beca had to clean out an entire shelf and Emily had to gather all of the coins out of their cupboard. If they thought about it, it would have only taken an hour tops, but Emily mixed up all of the stacks and Beca didn’t realize what that meant until she looked at the booklets they bought and groaned.

 

But they finished.

 

Red Jerkface smiled and hugged Emily with her front two arms, even giving Beca a shaky smile.

 

“Thank you.” She whispered. “Both of you. This is beautiful.”

 


	3. Snapper

“Emily!” Red Raptor shrieked. “What are you doing there?”

 

See, it was kind of Beca’s fault. She put a coin up in the metal part of the ceiling fan, assuming that no one would turn it on. Emily, the clever little dragon she is, found it, however Red Raptor decided the ceiling fan was a great place to start cleaning for today.

 

Which lead to poor Emily being trapped by the fan blades moving rapidly like molasses on a frigid winter day. She shrieked in terror, alerted Raging Raptor to her charges distress. Beca tried not to say anything, the guilt building in her gut. Okay yes she taught her girls to always take responsibility for their actions, but Raging Red bit through a cow rib yesterday because Emily got tired of chewing.

 

She’d like to be intact for family photos, thank you very much.

 

Raging Red stood on her hind legs, her left claw thumping against Beca’s freshly cleaned wooden floor as the housedragon hatched a plan to save the hatchling.

 

“Emily get down here now!” Horrified Raptor roared, her golden eyes narrowing.

 

Emily looked down from her perch, peeping through the wooden slats. The moment one passed her by she shook her head and whined.

 

“Nooo,” She whimpered. “Too scary.”

 

Raging Red looked ready to blow a fuse, so Beca quickly stepped in, putting her hand up and stopping the wooden slats.

 

“Emily!” Beca gasped, pretending to be shocked. 

 

She went no further, Raging Red could probably smell her fear. Instead she grabbed the trembling hatchling and brought her down to the enraged lizard.

 

“Emily!” Raging Red squeezed the brown dragon tight. “Don’t ever do that again.”

 

Quickly while she was distracted Beca made her escape. 

 

~

 

The girls and Chloe were finally on their way, it have been two years and they were finally ready to be whole again. Wise Scaly One had cleaned the entire house and was currently working on dinner.

 

While she was cleaning, Wise Scaly sent Beca out to shop for ingredients while she made dinner and cleaned Emily. When Beca got back, and who knew there were a thousand different kinds of peppers, Emily was sitting on the arm of the couch with a massive golden bow around her neck.

 

Beca knew her girls loved to make bows, they had arts and crafts projects that Chloe would buy for them. Everyone knew them at the old Michaels they used to frequent in Georgia, to the point that when Beca showed up ten minutes before closing every Friday looking ragged and run over, the cashier would already have a roll of pink ribbon ready to cash out.

 

Those were fun times.

 

Anyway, she knew her daughter’s didn’t use gold bow, and she didn’t buy any ribbon so that only left…

 

“Pretty?” Emily squeaked, puffing out her chest so Beca could get a better look.

 

“Yes!” Beca nodded.

 

~

 

The girls loved Emily, whisking her away after dinner to add to her bow collection. Garden Snake looked so concerned that Beca’s heart broke for her. It reminded her of the first day of Kindergarten, when she had to drop off the oldest one and hold back her own tears.

 

It was Stockholm Syndrome, she joked, Chloe didn’t appreciate her comedic genius.

 

“They grow up fast.” Chloe said, scooping Putty Snake into her arms.

 

Scaly Kitten took a deep breath and nodded. “It feels just like yesterday I was teaching her how to breath fire.”

 

(It was just yesterday. Beca actually had to go outside and buy more shower curtains because “somehow” it got burned down.)

 

“How are you?” Chloe asked,  her fingers slowly pet… rub… clawing through Scaly Kitten’s golden mane.

 

“Good good, less stressed, cleaned more, cooked dinner. How was dinner by the way?”

 

~

 

Salty Snake gently petted Emily, they were currently sitting on the ledge of Beca’s window. Chloe was watching, fascinated by the cultural lesson Salty Snake was giving her hatchling. 

 

“So this is the final right of passage. The First Flight.” Salty Sobbing Scaley said, kissing the side of Emily’s squirming temple. “Once she takes her first fight Emily will be a dragon.”

 

“Oh” Chloe said, rubbing soothing circles into Sobbing Mess’s golden mane. “It’s okay. Beca was just like this when she sent our girls off to school.”

 

Beca made an insulted noise, she had a reputation to uphold, but Sobbing Snake chuckled.

 

Emily smiled and gave Sobbing Mess a kiss on her cheek.

 

“Ready!” She squealed.

 

Sobbing Snake took a look and smiled.  She then chucked Emily out of the window. Beca choked, Chloe gurgled out a strangled gasp and Crazy Jerkface smiled as she looked out the window.

 

“YEEEeeeeeeeee”

 

Emily’s shrieks faded out into the background, and Beca’s heart dropped at the sound of a thud. Crazy Jerkface clapped, and Emily reappeared, her tiny wings beating like a hummingbird’s.

 

“Good job Emily! Look at your wings!” 

 

~

 

Jerk McJerkson was doing Chloe’s taxes as Beca and Chloe waited for Jesse to arrive. They invited him over for dinner, mostly because Chloe demanded Beca to invite him over. If the music producer had her way, she wouldn’t physically see any of her friends until the next Bella reunion.

 

Jerkson McJerk had magic powers, the extent of which she didn’t explain to anyone, but it was good enough that whenever they had company they quickly forgot the Mitchell-Beale’s had dragons.

 

Except for the Beale-Mitchell’s.

 

Anyway there was a little emergency and Chloe went upstairs to deal with the girls. Beca had a bit too much of the wine already so she slipped away to the bathroom, only to return to the funniest thing she had seen this entire week.

 

(Sorry video of the yodeling grandma)

 

Jesse had grabbed Red Snake by the mane and was currently panicking. 

 

“Beca!” He shrieked, his voice almost higher than Abby’s. “Chloe’s lost another snake!”

 

(When Chloe was just starting, there was a winter storm that took out the power to the vet hospital she worked at. For some strange reason her wife decided their warm house was a perfect place to store 50 snakes and reptiles. Jesse almost got bit.)

 

“Unhand me you freak!” Raging Red shrieked. “I will bite you!”

 

“Dude let her go!” Beca yelled, trying to grab at Raging Red while Jesse shook. 

 

His eyes bulged as Raging Red snarled at him and before anyone could react Bloodthirsty Snake bit deep into Jesse’s uncovered palm. He bellowed in agony, finally letting go of the older dragon, cradling his wounded arm.

 

“It has a pulse!” He screamed.

 

It did.

 

~

 

Since then, Jesse has apologized and given Smug Snapper a wide berth, and has been so polite to Emily that even Emily gives him funny looks. Beca felt kind of bad, she paid for the medical expenses, but it was kind of his fault. 

 

~

 

Abby ran down the stairs sobbing as Boring Snake filed Beca’s taxes, Sir Fargo in hand. The poor brown dog had a massive tear in his right arm, stuffing escaping faster than Beca at a family dinner with her folks.

 

Incoherent sobs broke Beca’s heart while Chloe squeezed her daughter.

 

“Don’t worry, we’ll get it fixed.” Beca swore, missing the tender golden eyes. 

 

~

 

Sir Fargo went missing. Chloe took the girls out while Beca swore up and down the house looking for Sir Fargo. Emily helped out, fishing between all the small cracks and crevices looking for the small brown dog.

 

(But, in Emily’s case it was bigger than her. So big dog?)

 

By the time Chloe and the girls were headed back Beca had given up, sitting on the couch trying not to drown her sorrows. Desperately she searched through Ebay, trying to find a suitable replacement, but it took them forever to find Sir Fargo in the first place.

 

She barely heard the door open, too engrossed in pages of random stuffed dogs to notice Abby squeal and run in the apartment.

 

“Mom look!” Abby yelled.

 

On the table was Sir Fargo, his arm completely healed, and Sir Wellington. They both looked freshly cleaned with massive golden bows around their necks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the bad chapter, college started again and it's somehow already killed all my brain cells.


	4. The Cavalry Comes

“Hey Lizard,” Beca said, walking into the kitchen. “We’re planning a Bella night.”

 

“I have a name you know.” Doppelganger Lizard said, from behind.

 

“What?” Beca shrieked, dropping Abby’s plastic cup. Her heart almost exploded, Sneaky Snake was so quiet Beca never heard her coming. 

 

“My name is Aubrey, thank you for finally asking,” Aubrey muttered sarcastically as she walked toward… herself? 

 

Actually, now that Beca looked at the second Aubrey the more she realized it wasn’t her least favorite dragon.

 

(Admittedly, Emily was most everyone’s favorite except for Chloe.)

 

The dragon on the kitchen table had a paler red and no mane, though it did have horns and Aubrey did not.

 

(Wait. Raging Raptor had a name? That was news.)

 

“Why…” Beca pointed to the thing on the table.

 

“It’s my skin, I’ve shed my winter scales and horns.” Aubrey shrugged, rolling up the skin into a ball while taking off the horns.

 

It kind of reminded Beca of a Fruit Roll Up, though she really didn’t want to eat it.

 

“You shed?”

 

~

 

It lead to a long discussion on dragon physiology and culture, and in all honesty it was very fascinating. She would have to ask Aubrey… no that sounded wrong. Boring McBoringson, there it was, more about dragon culture.

 

Apparently there were several species of Dragon, Smarty Snake belonged to a more serpentine kind that loved water and had magical powers. Emily belong to the more “traditional” kind of dragon, the ones that terrorized people and hoarded treasure.

 

“It’s all in the upbringing!” Salty Snake ranted. Beca would admit it was adorable watching Aubrey get so passionate about Emily. She was even waving her hands around everywhere. “No they said, it’s in their genes! Bah, have you seen Emily? She won’t even take a nibble out of a live chicken!”

 

That was true, but then again chickens were nearly five times the size of Emily. They stuck the two dragons out to the Beale’s farm, when Aubrey caught wind of the visit she demanded they bring Emily so she could show her all the animals. In hindsight, it was probably either an educational visit on what was food or what wasn’t.

 

“Isn’t that bad?” Beca asked. “Like, if a dragon can’t hunt how will they eat?”

 

“Oh, and what about you?” Stink-eye Snake asked. “Hmmm? Isn’t it bad you sit at a desk all day and don’t hunt cows?”

 

“Well, I can go to the store.” Beca huffed. “And I don’t need to eat beef.”

 

“Well, so can Emily when she gets older.” Aubrey snapped, smoking coming out of her nose. “Dragons don’t need to eat humans, they just do it out of tradition and sometimes habit. Emily can get all the nutrients she needs out of rat if she needed too.”

 

“Wait, so you’re saying Emily eats people?” Beca gasped.

 

“No!” Aubrey groaned, throwing her paws in the air. “Emily has never had a taste of human and she’s a healthy dragon! Has she ever bit you or your daughters?”

 

“No.”

 

“Exactly! If it was in her genetics she would have tried to eat you several times by now!”

 

Huh.

~

 

Beca and Chloe were sitting on the couch watching a movie while the girls were out on a school field trip. It was expensive, they were going to a battlefield up north and they wouldn’t get home until the next day, so they decided to have a date night with the dragons.

 

They were both worried about Aubrey.

 

Aubrey normally would spend the entire movie criticizing everything, which for some reason Chloe enjoyed. Beca enjoyed it too, her commentaries were better than the movies themselves, but sometimes she was creeped out.

 

“Burnt human flesh smells like barbeque.” Aubrey said once when they were watching a crime movie. Emily had been shipped away with the girls. “If they didn’t know they would have thought it was a pleasant smell.”

 

(Beca stared at Chloe who smiled and nodded. She scooted away, towards her phone.)

 

However this time Aubrey spent the entire movie watching Emily.

 

~   
  


When she heard the clicks of her keyboard at two in the morning Beca expected the worst. 

 

(Strangely enough her worst was thinking Chloe took her laptop and was buying useless junk through their shared Amazon account. She thought she was bad, but Chloe had a rapid trigger finger and in one day she bought something close to five thousand dollars worth of useless stuff. “It was a lighting deal!” She said. Ever since then Beca’s been the only one allowed on.)

 

It turned out Aubrey did use her front paws like hands and rear paws like feet. Her hind paws were firmly on the chair while she leaned on the table to use the laptop. The faint glow of the laptop screen transformed her from the scary scaly dragon in the daytime to a worn out worried parent.

 

Beca knew that look.

 

“Hey.” She said, Aubrey huffed in acknowledgment, small tendrils of smoke escaping her nose. “What are you doing?”

 

“Looking things up on the dragon internet.”

 

Another thing to file away for later.

 

“For Emily?”

 

“Yeah. I’m worried. I don’t know much about… other dragon species.” Aubrey looked at her, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “And… and what if I’m doing it wrong?”

 

Beca pulled up a chair and gently held Aubrey’s left paw. “Then, let’s look okay?”

 

~

 

They were waiting for Jessica, or Ashley. Maybe both.

 

After Beca got Sobbing Scaly a hot cup of water, and herself a Red Bull, they went to work and looked for mother dragon groups that advocated a “human free diet”. It took the rest of the night, but by the time they were finished they got one response.

 

Aubrey had been appalled by their grammar. The email had been written in a dragon language, and of course Aubrey was fluent in several dragon languages. Dragons were highly specific, to the point that verbs could be conjugated in a way to show that a dragon was mated or not.

 

“Here it’s Ashley speaking, and here it’s Jessica, and there it's both!” Aubrey shrieked, grey smoke flying out of her mouth. “But, here it’s mated and here it isn’t!”

 

(The madder Aubrey got the darker her smoke got. It was kind of funny actually.)

 

Aubrey actually got so furious she printed out the entire email, took a red pen all over it, and corrected every single mistake.

 

By the time she had reformatted it and saved it as a workbook exercise for Emily, something knocked on the window. They kept the curtains closed to keep the apartment colder, so Beca threw back the blinds revealing two bigger dragons.

 

They looked like Emily, like small Smaug's about the size of a Golden Retriever. One was almost the same shade of brown as Emily, while the other was a golden sandy color. Aubrey hopped over to the window and let them in.

 

“Hi, we are Jessica and Ashley!” The dragons said, smiling.

 

“I’m Jessica!” Both of them said.

 

Then they blinked and stared at each other. “No, I’m Jessica!”

 

Aubrey waved her hand, breaking their argument.

 

“Jessica, Ashley, I have a little hatchling about three years old and I have a lot of questions.”

  
  



	5. Who let the dragon out?

Beca stood awkwardly off to the side, right behind the couch, as she watched Cruella DeDragon tried to ship Emily off. Poor lovable Emily only wanted to impress Heartless Lizard, which ended up in the front window being broken through. Chloe was sitting on the couch backing up the larger red lizard.

 

(Yes, she has gained weight. Yes, Beca has noticed. Yes, Beca knows why her pastries are missing. Yes, Beca was still going to eat those, even though they were old and stale.)

 

“Emily it’s only for a few weeks.” Aubrey sighed as the little coin hogger whined and cried.

 

Emily looked adorable, her tiny bottom lip trembling and tiny tears building up in the corner of her scaly eyes.

 

“And we will all visit you!” Chloe smiled. “The girls have summer vacation, so they can bring their ribbons to give you new bows.”

 

Jessica and Ashley were both waiting in the corner. Technically it had been their fault, they had suggested after the “Incident” that Emily go to dragon summer school. It was similar to human Preschool, only much cooler. There she would learn how to breath fire, read in the fancy dragon language and learn about dragon myths.

 

(Helicopter Dragon-Mother almost had a heart attack at that. Jessica(Or Ashley) assured her that the camp promoted a “human-free” lifestyle, so none of the “bad” myths.)

 

Red Scaly sighed and wiped away Emily’s tears.

 

“You will have fun, I promise.”

 

~

 

They had both been worried about Empty Nest Syndrome, but it turned out Mopey Ropey had a day job.

 

Personally, Beca would have preferred to never learn about the damn thing, but life wasn’t perfect and the universe hated her.

 

She was currently in between albums trying to find another artist to produce for. She would have done this sooner, the girls were going to summer camp and Chloe was out of the house more often than not because of the wildfire season. 

 

Aubrey always greeted her in the mornings, they had breakfast together, then the Overgrown Garden Snake would slither out of the house doing “dragon things”. 

 

(Her literal words.)

 

Beca would wait for her to get back, roughly around 4pm sometimes 9pm, and they would clean the house together. On the nights that Chloe was out they would order takeout, when Chloe came home they would cook dinner together.

 

It was fun, sickeningly domestic if Beca was to be frank. She felt like a dragon wife… ew.

 

ANYWAY, she had finished everything she wanted to do that day so she sat there and watched some random show on Netflix. She was bored out of her mind, watching everything worth watching a few days into this hellish purgatory.

 

Honestly, this was why she kept the dragons around. If anything she knew they would be around to keep her mind of this torture. Before they showed up Beca had been about to get a dog, but she was allergic unfortunately. Lizards were cool, and the monotonous dedication Lizard Grandma gave to keeping to a schedule kept Beca’s sanity in check.

 

So when her phone rang she literally jumped out of the couch, she bought this one specifically because she could disappear into it if she wanted to, and snatched her phone off the table. 

 

“Beca Mitchell speaking.” Beca said, trying not to pant.

 

“Beca, I’ve found someone for you!” Jesse said, she could hear the grin on his stupid face. “Her name is Emily Junk and she’s sending you her sample track. It’s pretty good.”   
  


Beca rolled her eyes. She liked Jesse like a brother, but sometimes he was ridiculous. 

 

(He actually sent her a girl who wanted to be a singer because he tried to get laid.)

 

~

 

Yes Beca was aware Aubrey should have had a day job. And Beca realized that Selfless Selfish Bastard couldn’t feed Emily just out of the leftovers without anyone noticing. Not like Aubrey would let it happen, but still thinking about the dragon in a pencil skirt and glasses was hard to swallow.

 

(Mostly because every time she thought about it Beca would force herself not to burst into tears of laughter.)

 

Her label had hired a new attorney, Aubrey Posen, from the Posen & Posen firm. It was a father daughter firm that was one of the most sought after to handle business law. That was cool, but Aubrey Posen was hella expensive and Beca mildly could care less.

 

Emily Junk on the other hand, was hilarious. She had a lot of potential, and reminded Beca of Emily the dragon, which lead to a lot of internal confusion on her part. It was hard to seperate the two in her mind, she almost slipped and revealed the little coin loving lizard, barely catching herself.

 

~

“Do you like gold coins?” Beca blurted out one day as they were recording.

 

“Uh, I guess?” Emily Junk frowned, then smiled. “They’re pretty cool Beca.”

 

~

 

One day she went home and almost had a heart attack. There were high heels, expensive designer stilettos that looked like they could kill. Probably could.

 

On the couch, far too close to Chloe was a blonde woman Beca didn’t recognize.

 

“And so, I said that was impossible.” Chloe ranted, her wine glass spilling everywhere. “How in the world could people do something like that? Try to feed their dog chocolate and ask if I could just give them a laxative?”

 

“That…”

 

“Aubrey?” Beca blurted out.

 

She knew that voice, it was Aubrey Posen from Legal. She spent the entire recording session listening to that voice absolutely demolish her entire Legal team. It was hilarious besides the quiet sobbing and dying inside.

 

Beca wasn’t sure how she could steal back her wife from Aubrey, not because she didn’t believe in herself, but because Aubrey from legal made her want to pee herself. That woman could probably demand something from the Devil and he would be too terrified to say no.

 

Aubrey turned around and frowned. “Yes, keep up.”

 

She turned back around, facing Chloe who gave her a smile. Ah, maybe her wife wasn’t cheating on her. “As I was saying…”

 

“Wait, why are you here? Did I break a law?” Mild panic built in her chest. She was pretty sure the websites she visited her completely legal. Was it illegal to torrent your own music?

 

“No, I live her...”

 

“What?” Since when where they polygamous?

 

Aubrey huffed and shrank in front of her eyes, leaving a familiar dragon in a pencil skirt.

 

“So as I was…”

 

“Oh! So the Lizard Squatter is Aubrey Posen! Shit did I say that out loud?”

 

~

 

According to Chloe, she had been rude the entire evening to Aubrey, which was completely unfair. So now Wife Stealer was taking her spot in her bedroom while Beca had to sleep on the couch like an animal. It sucked.

~   
  


 

“Emily broke out!” Aubrey Posen hissed, grabbing Beca by the bicep. 

 

The impossibly strong lawyer dragged her into a nearby closet. She caught the eye of James from Accounting, who looked absolutely terrified as Aubrey shut the door.

 

“What? I didn’t see any acne.” Beca frowned. “And I don’t see how that’s a problem? I mean, it's not like we need her face yet. And there's photoshop.”

 

Aubrey rolled her eyes. “Emily, the tiny brown dragon that calls a coin a collection. The adorable little brown one?”

 

“Oh!” Beca blushed. “Wait, she broke out of dragon school?”

 

“Yes!” Aubrey hissed, smoke flaring out of her teeth. “And she tracked us down. I would be proud but I can’t believe she did this!”   
  


Beca coughed, the smoke started filling the entire room, slowly suffocating her of beloved oxygen.

 

“Yeah, but if you don’t want to set off the fire alarm take it down a notch!”

 

~

 

The entire day Aubrey followed her around, under the pretense that they were discussing legal things. Really they were trying to watch out for Emily, any flash of moving brown or gold put them on high alert.

 

Even Emily Junk noticed their strange behavior. She kept giving them strange looks as Beca and Aubrey tracked movement like married cats. When they let their guard down, a familiar tiny lizard popped out of nowhere.

 

Right behind Emily Junk.

 

She waved her paw and Beca choked “Emily!”.

 

Aubrey tackled the dragon, wrapping her in her arms as Emily turned around.

 

“Aubrey!” Emily yelped.

 

“I’m fine!”

 

~

 

Emily slipped away, squeaking something about “Free donuts”. Aubrey couldn’t chase her, Emily Junk was helping her up, and apparently, she had twisted her ankle.

 

“Aubrey your ankle!” Emily Junk yelled.

 

Well, it was more like a yelp, like a surprised puppy barking in terror.

 

“I would like a snack.” Aubrey awkwardly announced, trying to remember how to be human. She tried standing on her “twisted ankle”, before remembering she couldn’t do that so she collapsed to the floor.

 

Goodness. 

 

“Oh, okay yeah let’s get you to the breakroom.” Emily Junk said, ignoring the strangeness of it all.

 

She wrapped herself on Aubrey’s left side, Beca helped on the right. They slowly made their way to the breakroom, near the door Beca went ahead mostly to grab Emily. She was floating in front of the donuts, an open soda near her and a donut in both paws. She got a chocolate one, almost the same shade as her, and it was bigger than her entire body.

 

Her ears were twitching in joy as she dug into her donut. The crumbs were almost as big as her eyes.

 

“Emily!” Beca hissed, quickly hiding the tiny dragon from Emily Junk.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Nothing!” She swore her voice didn’t break.

 

Emily Junk eyed the soda. “Don’t worry your secret's safe with me.”

 

Beca looked down. Oh yeah, Chloe ran in here one time to yell about diabetes. She gave Emily Junk a pained smile and stood by the donuts while the younger woman tended to the dragon in need.

 

“Beca, please give Aubrey a donut.” Emily Junk said. 

 

“Oh I don’t eat those things.” Aubrey said, realizing why Beca was hovering over the deep fried pastries.

 

Emily Junk frowned as she helped the lawyer prop up her foot. 

 

“It’s not swollen…”

 

While Emily Junk was busy looking at Emotionless Actress’ perfect ankle, Beca turned around. Emily, the lovable dragon had finished half of her donut and was offering the rest to Beca.

 

“Donut?” Emily chirped. “I won’t tell Chloe. Promise!”

 

“No thank you.” Beca whispered. 

 

Emily blinked, and before Beca knew it she slipped by trying to sneakily offer Aubrey the rest. Beca watched in horror as the too well-bred dragon slowly inched forward trying to pass by the human.

 

(See she told Prim and Proper that it wasn’t a good idea to teach Emily good manners. They wouldn’t get her far in life. Now she would rub it in, but Beca was smart and she knew better. Prim and Proper would turn into Through Executor if Emily got in trouble.)

 

Emily was doing quite well, but the panicked expression on Aubrey’s face tipped off Emily Junk and before they knew it Emily the human turned around. But, Aubrey trained her tiny ward well and Emily quickly ducked out of sight, following the woman’s head.

 

It was tenser than the one time Beca tried sowing.

 

“Emily!” Beca shrieked as Emily Junk’s fist narrowly missed the tiny brown dragon.

 

“What…” The yell died on her lips as Emily Junk and Emily locked eyes.

 

“Donut?”

 

~

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to do a legit origin story, but then I thought about Beca having to deal with two Emilys. Maybe next time?


End file.
